1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of information handling system input/output devices, and more particularly to an information handling system dual mode touch enabled secondary display.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
As information handling system capabilities have increased, manufacturers have sought to simplify end user interactions with information handling systems through various input/output (I/O) devices. Ideally, I/O devices improve the end user experience and help end user's take advantage of the full range of system capabilities. One area of improvement in I/O devices is the display of information with liquid crystal displays (LCDs). LCDs provide images with good resolution and low power consumption, and are typically integrated in the chassis of portable information handling systems. Serial links and interfaces provide substantial bandwidth that allows communication of high resolution images. Information handling system end users will sometimes connect multiple displays to a single system to provide convenient presentation of large amounts of information. Another area of improvement in I/O devices is the integration of touch sensitive portions in a display to form a touchscreen display. With a touchscreen, an application running on a processor of the information handling system presents an image of an input device at a touch sensitive portion of the screen so that an end user can make inputs by touching the screen. For example, an LCD presents an image of a number pad having number keys and accepts number inputs based upon end user inputs at the image.
A typical portable information handling system will have several integrated input devices, such as a keyboard, a number pad, a point stick, a touch screen and a touch pad. A touch pad is a flat area usually located near the keyboard that an end user touches to move a mouse cursor on a display. One recent development is to replace the mouse pad with a similarly-sized touchscreen. The touchscreen offers the functionality of a mouse pad, but also is available to present information as images much as second display might present information as images. For example, the touchscreen interfaces with an operating system executing on the information handling system through a serial link, such as a USB or PCI Express link, so that the operating system can present information at the touchscreen as it would at any secondary display. In this manner, the operating system offers flexibility for the use of the mouse pad touchscreen display, such as presenting a number pad. One difficulty with the use of a touchscreen as a mouse pad is that the touchscreen has limited if any use when the operating system is unable to communicate an image for presentation at the touchscreen. The operating system is sometimes unavailable, such as during maintenance or limited modes of operation, like reduced power states, which restricts end user access to the mouse pad touchscreen.